Haws anyone else done this?

[donkey doctor]

Hello; Has anyone else done this? After driving all day, after the 3rd tank of fuel in one day, has anyone pulled into a gas station and stepped off the motorcycle without putting the stand down?

It seems I usually do this on the second or third day into a trip. This year it was at Canmore Alberta. I pinned my leg against the curb the pumps were on, some nice fellow jumped across it to yank the thing off me.

Did I ever feel stupid. No damage done just embarassment.

I did the same thing in '83 on my new Yamaha Vision in Reno Nevada, but no one helped me out of that one, I just stopped and didn't put my legs down, then when I realized that something was wrong, I stabbed my leg out, too late, and toppled in a heap away from the pump.

Also in '63 I stopped at a light with my Duo-Glide and put my right foot down into a puddle of anti-freeze. My leg slipped on the slippery stuff and the huge bike tipped over on the right side. I kept trying to keep the bike up and stuck my leg under it just as it was going over. There I was trapped in the left lane under my Harley. The lights changed 5 or 6 times before a cvouple of guys in a "Coke" truck stopped to lift it off me and wheel it to the side of the road. I sold the Harley pretty fast after that, it burned me badly and put a permanent dent in my right leg, and I developed a permanent dislike for Harleys

 

[HELLIOTT]

"Has anyone else done this? After driving all day, after the 3rd tank of fuel in one day, has anyone pulled into a gas station and stepped off the motorcycle without putting the stand down?"

I'll have to raise my hand.

Hall

 

[JERRY]

no.
as far as i can tell you're the only one that's ever done such dumb stuff.

 

[knary]

Many have done it.
I posted a similar tale on the beeg list some time back. One guy, a fellow MSF instructor, told his tale of woe.

He was teaching a class. All of the students and instructors went to the usual lunch spot. He pulled into a parking spot. Then, with everyone in sight, he leaned the bike over...having forgotten to put the sidestand down. Down the bike tumbles, leaving him standing there, proudly wearing his "Motorcycle Instructor" T-shirt.

 

[RIDERR1150GSADV]

OUCH!

 

[kbasa]

Um. No.

well not in a bunch of years anyway

 

[basketcase]

Me? Huh!

...that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it

 

[moosehead]

Are you sure that wasn't after the third beer???

Yep, been there...done it! Most recently with my good friends K bike! Was out on business/pleasure in your neck of the woods (Salt Spring, Is) visiting our dear friends. Jim offered me his recently restored K while he took his other bike. So off we go in the rain for a buzz around the island and then quick ferry jog over to Duncan for little criuse to Genoa to meet the girls for lunch. Well, we pulled into the place and....you guessed it! Fortunately, I have done it on my own bikes .....so, quick as a flash, I got it back up with nary a mark. Whew....! My buddy was still standing .... looking at his baby ....jaw slack...pained expression...but after a brewski he was OK!



Mooosehead

 

[BMWGypsy]

Sort of.

Brand new CBR. First week on the road. Either I didn't get the side stand down all the way or it caught on my Darien pants. Turned to walk away and DOWN she went. Nice big dent in the gas tank as a reminder. Luckily, the paint didn't break.

Haven't done it since.

And, oddly, I NEVER did it with the stupid-@$$, spring-loaded side-stand that I had on my airhead. Go figure.

 

[DesertRider]

Have almost done it on a couple of different bikes that had a mechanical interlock between the clutch and sidestand (i.e., when you pull in the clutch it retracts the sidestand).

Get on the bike, bike in neutral, start it, pull in the clutch ("clunk!" -- sidestand goes up), put the bike in gear, remember I forgot to put in earplugs, release the clutch, step off the bike... and WHAT THE.... DAMMIT! Both times on both bikes (an old Kawasaki KE100 dual-sport, the other my former K75S) I caught them as they were about to go over, but only by sheer luck.

On my Kawi 750 when traveling and the rear of bike piled high with gear, I sometimes get off the bike by standing on the left peg, hands on the handlebar ends, and swinging my right leg over the gear, much as one gets off a saddled horse. On a couple of occasions when doing that, just as I finished the maneuver the bike fell in my lap, sidestand partially retracted. Both times I caught the bike (easy to do because it just leaned against me as I stepped off), but I couldn't figure out why it was happening when it never happened before. Finally figured out that when pivoting on my left foot the national body twist causes me to twist the handlebars to the right, which pulls the bike forward a bit, and between that and my momentum coming off the bike it's enough to fold up the sidestand. Lesson: When getting off the bike that way, make sure you do NOT swivel the handlebars.

 

[109180]

Guilty

Moving my Valkyrie Interstate around while cleaning I got on her and put up the stand. After moving her I let her fall slowly over onto the stand just like always except there was no stand! There's that point where you know your done, what a helpless feeling. I did everything I could to just let the 900 pound beasty down slowly and towards the end was ejected out into the yard. She sat nicely on the engine and saddle bag guards so not even a scratch.

 

[eric2]

Hello; Has anyone else done this? After driving all day, after the 3rd tank of fuel in one day, has anyone pulled into a gas station and stepped off the motorcycle without putting the stand down?

It seems I usually do this on the second or third day into a trip. This year it was at Canmore Alberta. I pinned my leg against the curb the pumps were on, some nice fellow jumped across it to yank the thing off me.

Did I ever feel stupid. No damage done just embarassment.

I did the same thing in '83 on my new Yamaha Vision in Reno Nevada, but no one helped me out of that one, I just stopped and didn't put my legs down, then when I realized that something was wrong, I stabbed my leg out, too late, and toppled in a heap away from the pump.

Also in '63 I stopped at a light with my Duo-Glide and put my right foot down into a puddle of anti-freeze. My leg slipped on the slippery stuff and the huge bike tipped over on the right side. I kept trying to keep the bike up and stuck my leg under it just as it was going over. There I was trapped in the left lane under my Harley. The lights changed 5 or 6 times before a cvouple of guys in a "Coke" truck stopped to lift it off me and wheel it to the side of the road. I sold the Harley pretty fast after that, it burned me badly and put a permanent dent in my right leg, and I developed a permanent dislike for Harleys

You shouldn't have any problems until 2023 AFAICT

 

[kbasa]

Re: Re: Haws anyone else done this?

You shouldn't have any problems until 2023 AFAICT

 

[BRADFORDBENN]

Gas?

You guys are still using that stuff. I gave that stuff up long ago, BMW said it voided the warranty if I did not use fuel imported from Germany.

 

[MAGWA]

So Many Drops

.....So Little Bandwidth.

The worst was during a short interlude between BMW's when I decided to buy a Kawasaki Concours.

I took delivery and a couple of weeks later had to go to the DMV for something related to exchange of plates.

Top heavy, parking on a hill, tired, stupid....all culminated in dropping the bastard in the DMV parking lot. Worse, I couldn't pick the pig up.......The right peg was broken off. Little else seemed damaged.

In to the office I limped. Had to ask a burley guy in line to help. He did.

When I went back in, the DMCV Alpha-Woman, with whom I have done a good deal of car and bike registration business, announced loud enough for all of Mariposa to hear, "I'm sorry. We can not register a motorcycle to anyone that tips it over in our lot".

Laughs were had all around. Almost.

 

[LORAZEPAM]

How much did you lose on the Concourse when you sold it?? or did you ride it for a while?

 

[MAGWA]

More than money.....

But in real cash, about $2,500 in 1,500 miles.

Not a record for me.

 

[The_Veg]

I have not *YET* made the mistake in the initial post, but I made a similar one once.
Back when I was refurbishing the old K100RT (my first bike), I had just taken MSF and had gotten the bike running and was practising in the parking lot of my apartment complex. The bike wan't street-legal yet so I'd stayed in the complex and refueled it from a jug. One night I felt like going outside. At the time the only bodywork I'd reinstalled was the upper fairing. I rode out of the complex and down the street about a block to the corner gas station. So far so good. I planned to ride up to the pumps from behind so that the lack of a tag wouldn't show to any cops passing by on the street. I did fine turning through the lot so far, but then initiated a somewhat sharp right to pull up to the pump. I was still leaned a bit when I came to a stop and went down but tried to fight it so it came to rest on the mirror housing which already had some ground-scars much to my relief.
Another time during those practise times I was stopping and discovered at a very innopportune moment that my shoelace was caught on the shift lever, and my weight was already shifting for a left-foot landing. Oh damn. But I managed to strain against the lace enought to prevent a full fall.
Another time I had ridden to work and had shut off and was getting ready to dismount. Both feet on the ground already, still straddling the bike. I forget what I was doing, but the weight got away from me (the K100RT was a heavy beast). Straddling the bike is not a very leveraged position when that happens as I soon learned. But I fought it, and then learned that that was not really necessary as it came to rest on the hard bag, no more than 45 degrees from vertical.
But the most embarrasing one was recently. I was on a backroads ride with three clubmates a few weeks ago. I was out on the R100R I'd just bought and was beaming with pride, especially as the K and Oilhead riders I was with seemed impressed with the bike. We had just had a great lunch in a charming small town in east TX and we were saddling up and readying to roll. I was the first to get started and pulled out of from the curb and turned left. The engine wasn't very warm and I must not have given it enough gas. The engine quit mid-turn and of course the resulting hard-stop didn't help much. I dropped rapidly to the left but hadn't fully retracted my foot yet so I got a good fight in. Still went down on the cobblestones but a) gently and 2) landed on the crash bar at a hauntingly familiar not-too-far-down angle. My clubmates were quite concerned but also pretty impressed when I easily hauled it back up- these guys never rode a Beemer under 600 lbs! No damage save a pinky-nail-size patch of exposed brass on the carsh bar.

 

[99007]

My First Bike

The first one I owned was a Honda 750-4 with a windjammer on it. Bought it right after I turned 19 (had been mooching my buddy's Kaw before that). Brought it home and set it up in the back yard to wash it. Windy day. Wind hits windjammer and puts bike on it's side. I weighed 185 at the time and just about pulled my arms out of the sockets trying to get her upright. No one else was home - I ran to get a neighbor.

Same bike couple months later. I am off on my "Solo across the country to find myself" motorcycle trip. Made it to St Louis on day one. (500 or so miles) riding along next day. biker pulls along side making gestures to pull over.
"When was the last time you tightened your chain?," he asked.
"Tighten my chain?," I asked.
Okay, so I ain't too mechanical.

 

[Win3855]

Yep I have. After two days riding and camping in the rain,I rode from Finger Lakes in New York to Portland Maine in one long blast.Something like 700 plus miles,cold, wet. I pulled up in front of garage,got off opened door,got on rode into garage, got off dropped bike on myself.It hurt bad landing on lawn-mower with Sportster on top. :yow